What has made you successful so far?

What has made me successful so far? Just the belief that I can become healthier. I love the fact that I feel better and have more energy. I think we me everything starts with my confidence and the importance of being better. I enjoy working out and feeling better. My biggest successful so far is my effort to work on becoming a better me.:bigsmile:

Accountability(I check in daily with an internet group outside of MFP).

Daily weighing(works for me, even travel with a scale!)

Logging honestly

Daily exercise(walking 3-7 miles daily)

I've been in maintenance over a year now, and it does not get easier. It is a daily effort for me. It's worth it though.

Routine. I have a routine of working out most days of the weeks and it's become routine to buy/eat healthy food and only get one meal per week that isn't home-cooked. I now always park farther away than necessary, never use elevators, etc.

Also the thought: "How would the person I want to be approach this?"

how much better I felt once I started feeling so much better from eating well, and the fact that I'm stubborn so once I decided I was gonna do it that was it really.

determination and and keeping emotions out of it

i am determined to do this simply because i started and see no reason to give up, would make all my efforts so far pointless and that would just annoy me

and i keep emotions out in the sense that i don't get angry or frustrated if i have a bad or lazy day, i just accept it and move on knowing that if emotions become involved its 100x harder,

I've always been a yoyo with my weight but when i reached my highest weight of 210lb enough was enough i wanted to be beautiful and healthy! What was different this time was me actually seeing what a fat *kitten* id become, what's keeps me going is motivation, loved ones, my very supportive bf, mfp and my friends on mfp just about 1/3 there of my weight loss 20 lb gone 43 lb to go

Planning my day at the very beginning of the day. No wondering, breakfast and lunch are packed and taken with me everyday. No worries. If I don't plan it I wait, until I'm starving, and then I eat...at arbys. Unless I can get a co worker to talk me down and shame me into subway.

This has been a lifelong struggle for me (I"m 53) and my success is based on three things:
1.) MFP- they've tapped into the thing that makes men memorize baseball stats and women differentiate between thirty different high heels of essentially the same design. We love to categorize and classify. By keeping track and having access to instant information it feeds that thing in me that needs to have a constant flow of information, and as such keeps my interest and feeds my compulsive nature.
2.) Journal Keeping/Calorie Counting
The Journal plays into the compulsion stated above, and being able to access the nutritional information on any product makes it work. If I kept searching without finding what I was looking for I'd have given up long ago. As for the calories, I wouldn't guess some of the calorie counts I see. I'm sure I had many days in my past life that I consumed upwards from 2000-2500 calories in a single meal. Now I haven't had any days over 2600 calories in four months, or over 1500 calories in the last six weeks (adjusting for exercise)
3.) Getting kicked to the curb
My wife just decided to take a different path in February- she either went crazy or came to her senses, depending on your perspective. Either way, it was a serendipitous moment for me and catalyzed me into action. Now I'm closing in on my goals and about to take the feminine world by STORM.
Here's Louis CK discussing the dynamic- NSFW, but only mildly profane. --> http://youtu.be/8Kr6RGpmxtA

The best thing that I did was to detach from any stress over my goals and love myself now. I was happy with my body 20 pounds heavier, 10 pounds heavier, and, much more recently, 5 pounds heavier. It's a lot easier to stick with a plan, especially when weight loss goes slowly, if you aren't waiting on being able to live with yourself.

1. Only doing things that I think I can reasonably maintain forever. No crazy fasts or "diets" or "jump starting" or 72 hr gym sessions or anything else extreme. Just making better choices in a way I feel I can do forever.

2. Realizing that there is no "done". You don't reach your goal then go back to "normal". This is it. Forever and ever, amen. So I set my goals based on behaviors I can control (eating better and getting some exercise), and let the results happen whenever they happen. I'm in no rush to reach a certain weight or size or whatever. I care about maintaining the behaviors that will allow me to reach that weight/size and maintain it when I get there.

Allowing myself to eat whatever food I want as long as it fits into my nutrient goals.

My progress would have been short-lived if I had started out forbidding myself from eating Taco Bell, pizza, and ice cream.

Setting small goals. Such as loose 5 pounds this month, or hit a certain weight by my birthday. It breaks the journey down and each mini goal is inspiring!!!

Patience for the long haul: It look me over 3 yers to slowly put on the extra weight, it's not going to come off in three weeks, or three months.

Realism: having let my weight get where it is, I may never be able to maintain at my previous adult maintenance weight. My doctor has even said that. That doesn't mean I can't drop most of the extra and maintain that.

Paitent Realism: I can't change my eating and activity for a few months and then go back to what I was doing before. What I was doing wasn't working.

Realistic Patience: weight loss is not the only marker of success in my plan. Feeling better, fitter, and stronger are my main goal. I've previously let myself get discouraged when exercise didnt' result in noticeable weight loss. I'm remembering, this time, that regular actiivity and weight bearing exercise have much more to do with my health than the scale does. I'm doing this for my power, my endurance, my bone mass more than I'm doing this for my pants size.

A weekly free/cheat/splurge day.

I'm another daily weigher. I know it's not for everyone, but it helps me feel in control, makes sure I log in here every day, and means I don't get discouraged when I don't see a loss.

Not eating between meals. I'm not strict about this, but it has been a good habit for me.

Not eating too little.

Just sticking with it.

Not making it any more difficult than it needs to be. I don't obsess about macros, I don't worry if I go over now and then, etc.